holy shift

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

As of yesterday, 3 reactor cores had a 'partial meltdown'. By this, it means the rods had started to melt. Most people call a 'partial meltdown' when the rods melt completely, but do not melt through the protective core walls. I assume the situation is worse today, but I havent had a chance to check up on it yet this morning.

Nuclear power plants are usually quite safe. American designed plants that use water cooling, like the ones in Japan, require a severe situation to create this sort of problem. An 8.9 earthquake followed 15 mins later by a devastating tsunami, that's a pretty extreme situation that cant happen many places in the world. There is no higher priority for a govt than to keep electricity to its nuclear reactors. It basically takes an amazingly devastating disaster, that disrupts the entire grid and shuts off power to virtually the entire country, before that occurs. Such a situation would be amazingly unlikely in the United States. It would basically take a WWIII type situation to disrupt our power grid so severely.

And before anyone mentions Chernobyl, it was a dry pile, which the US has not built since the very first one The Manhattan Project was the US's only dry pile, we moved away from them immediately because we understood the problems they can cause (like a Chernobyl).

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

Also, don't forget Chernobyl was a different animal. They could not stop the process unlike Japan. Chernobyl actually started to accelerate. But japan is also using plutonium and not just uranium like Chernobyl was. Which that itself is a different ball game.

Audio #4 had an explosion that blew 2 8meter holes in the north wall. Explosion happened in the pool where they were holding the rods for maintenance that was going on at number 4.

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

Also, don't forget Chernobyl was a different animal. They could not stop the process unlike Japan. Chernobyl actually started to accelerate. But japan is also using plutonium and not just uranium like Chernobyl was. Which that itself is a different ball game.
Audio #4 had an explosion that blew 2 8meter holes in the north wall. Explosion happened in the pool where they were holding the rods for maintenance that was going on at number 4.

i was living in germany when this happened. they didn't want us to go outside for days.

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

Japan Earthquake Aftermath - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Also, don't forget Chernobyl was a different animal. They could not stop the process unlike Japan. Chernobyl actually started to accelerate. But japan is also using plutonium and not just uranium like Chernobyl was. Which that itself is a different ball game.
Audio #4 had an explosion that blew 2 8meter holes in the north wall. Explosion happened in the pool where they were holding the rods for maintenance that was going on at number 4.

Ah, thanks for the update (I still havent checked the news).

Chernobyl was a dry pile, the cooling mechanism is literally just a giant pile of carbon blocks with the rods stuck in them. A dry pile can only cool so much. Once the pile is saturated with heat and the rods are still getting hotter, a meltdown in impossible to stop. But US built reactors use water for cooling. Assuming power is present, you can always pump in fresh water to continually renew the cooling process. Its much, much harder to have a meltdown in a wet reactor than in a dry pile. Usually the worst that will happen with a wet reactor is off-gassing of radioactive steam, to relieve pressure build up from the water evaporating while cooling the rods. This off-gassing is bad, but its a lot better than a Chernobyl style meltdown.

 

[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

Ah, thanks for the update (I still havent checked the news).
Chernobyl was a dry pile, the cooling mechanism is literally just a giant pile of carbon blocks with the rods stuck in them. A dry pile can only cool so much. Once the pile is saturated with heat and the rods are still getting hotter, a meltdown in impossible to stop. But US built reactors use water for cooling. Assuming power is present, you can always pump in fresh water to continually renew the cooling process. Its much, much harder to have a meltdown in a wet reactor than in a dry pile. Usually the worst that will happen with a wet reactor is off-gassing of radioactive steam, to relieve pressure build up from the water evaporating while cooling the rods. This off-gassing is bad, but its a lot better than a Chernobyl style meltdown.

The united states uses a different design of reactor than Japan. Although, you are correct in the fact that no one uses the dry pile method anymore.

 

[plugitin 5,000+ posts]

not looking good there, another fire